BELGIAN BEAT BRIGADE!
Belgium’s contribution to dance music is often overlooked, but throughout the '80s and '90s the country produced some of the world’s most infl uential electronic music. With Belgium Booms, a series of events in London this October showcasing the country’s talent, and a new fi lm The Sound Of Belgium looking to change that public perception, we take a closer look at the country that gave us EBM, new beat, hardcore techno and so much more...
Words: JOHN POWER
rom a few likely lads holidaying in themselves for this oversight. Ibiza to clubs like Shoom, The Trip and “It's mostly due to our own lack of interest,” he sighs. “Even after 20 the wild excesses of the rave scene, years I'm still the fi rst to tackle this subject. If this had happened in the story of how acid house took root Holland there would have been dozens of books and documentaries in the British Isles is a familiar, if about it because they are proud of their culture, the French and the still entertaining, tale. Britain’s rave Germans are too, and well of course, especially the English, but us revolution didn’t occur in splendid Belgians… if we have something worth talking about, we’ll be the isolation though and by the time last ones to.” Britain’s youth were dicking about in In Antwerp’s Ancienne, Belqique DJs like Ronnie Harmsen were dungarees and getting right-on-one-matey, a similar scene was creating an eclectic scene mixing the harder sequenced sounds of already fi rmly established in Belgium. Only this one, rather than EBM with leftfi eld new-wave pop by Belgian bands like Allez Allez, beingF soundtracked by imported vinyl from Chicago and Detroit, and everything from Bauhaus’ gloomy goth-rock to the experimental was being driven by a homemade sound — new beat. sounds of Klaus Schulze and Steve Reich. Every weekend, queues By the mid '80s Belgium already had a strong electronic music would stretch around the block as the resident DJs put together sets pedigree, having gifted the world the stern sounds of Electronic with the same attention to detail, passion and sense of drama as that Body Music. Powered by the availability of cheap synthesisers, of their more famous American peers like David Mancuso or Larry post-punk Belgian bands like Front-242 spliced Throbbing Gristle’s Levan. industrial noise with the clean Körpermusik of Kraftwerk to create Then in 1987 Dikke Ronny, then resident DJ at the Café d’Anvers, a muscular, martial sound that would in turn infl uence many of would take Belgian electro act A Split Second’s ‘Flesh’, slow the vinyl Detroit’s techno pioneers. Charting the rise and fall of the country’s down to 33rpm +8, and in doing so, would create the famous new club culture, new feature-length documentary, The Sound Of beat sound. The effect was electric. Slowed down, the music became Belgium, out this month, is at turns both funny and sad as the likes even more powerful, the bass became more pronounced and other of Telex’s Dan Lacksman, CJ Bolland and Renaat Vandepapeliere from DJs took note. Labels began to re-release records in this new slowed- R&S recount how this small self-effacing country found itself to be down style and Belgian producers began to adopt this slower groove the epicentre of Europe’s techno scene. into their original productions.
SLOWER GROOVE Clubs like the soon to be legendary Boccaccio became temples to Despite its pivotal role in the evolution of electronic music, Belgium’s this new beat, whilst the infl uential Liaisons Dangereuses radio show contribution rarely gets the attention it deserves, not that The broadcast the sound to the whole country. New beat exploded across Sound Of Belgium director Jozef Devillé blames anyone but Belgians Belgium. Unlike the acid house parties across the channel though,
%& RX[OU Q][ RX[OU Q][
DJ526.belgian.indd 78 16/9/13 18:26:01 THE SOUNDS OF BELGIUM – FIVE TRACKS THAT DEFINE A
Brussels and Antwerp would soon go NATION on to have a massive infl uence on Dan Lacksman the UK’s own nascent rave scene. “The UK rave sound was completely FRONT 242 CJ Bolland inspired by hearing those Belgian 'Special Forces' (1984) riffs,” admits Optimo’s JD Twitch in Packed full of stuttering samples, the fi lm, as what Belgian producers portentous vocals, industrial bass and did one week, British producers primitive drum machines locked into a rushed to copy the next. martial stomp, ‘Special Forces’ taken from Front 242’s second album ‘No Comment’ It wasn’t just the UK that was falling defi ned the EBM aesthetic. under the Belgian spell, and by now the shockwaves given off by the A SPLIT SECOND country’s hardcore attitude were 'Flesh' (1986) reaching further than just across the It was A Split Second’s 1986 single ‘Flesh’ that channel. From New York to Tokyo, DJ Dikke Ronny thought would sound better producers like Joey Beltram and Ken slowed down to 33rpm +8, and he was right. Ishii were not only being inspired New beat had its fi rst anthem. by the Belgian sound, but were the atmosphere the new beat DJs looked to create also fi nding a home on the country’s labels like RAVESIGNAL III was far from euphoric. At Boccaccio DJs would keep the pioneering R&S, whilst Detroit’s Underground 'Horsepower' (1991) the punishingly loud music pounding at a grinding Resistance would acknowledge the country’s scene One of CJ Bolland’s many releases for R&S, tempo, selecting the darkest-sounding tracks as with 1992’s ‘Belgian Resistance’ EP. The boom time 'Horsepower' is Belgian techno at its fi nest. lasers strafed the 3000-plus Belgian youths who’d couldn’t last though, and whilst bombastic techno Packed full of trancey riffs, sledgehammer beats pack out the club every Sunday. The effect was as and the easy availability of ecstasy were fuelling and Belgian hardcore attitude, it stills sounds as intimidating as it was exhilarating. wild nights in the clubs, the accelerated tempos incredible today as it did on its release in 1991. Belgium’s youth lapped it up. New beat burst out were also speeding the scene towards its downfall. of the clubs and onto the streets, its devotees Whilst new beat had been co-opted by the pop 2MANYDJS dressed in a mix of new romantic and acid house mainstream, records like T99’s ‘Anasthasia’ were 'As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt.2' (2002) styles — crucifi xes, smiley faces and a Beastie Boys- too savage, too wild to be tamed. For the Belgian The only Radio Soulwax mix offi cially released esque obsession with wearing stolen car decals as authorities, much like the Tory government in the and one of the most infl uential DJ mixes ever. An jewelery. At this point the mainstream may have UK, the idea of a generation getting high as kites eclectic mix of rock, pop, hip-hop, electro and the been doing its best to ignore it but the kids were and dancing to this aggressive anti-music was just Dewaele’s own bootlegs, its anything-goes spirit buying new beat records like Erotic Dissidents' too much to countenance. redefi ned what club music could be in the 21st ‘Move Your Ass and Feel the Beat’ in their tens of In the early '90s the crackdown began. Police century. thousands. stepped up their raids, and club closures were As is often the case, success would ultimately lead commonplace. One by one these temples to COMPUPHONIC to saturation and with easy money to be made every techno were targeted and by 1993 even the 'Sunset' (2012) producer and has-been singer rushed to release a legendary Boccaccio had closed its doors for the The ne plus ultra of Belgium’s recent Balearic house new beat record. By the end of the '80s Belgium’s last time. As the credits roll, Devillé’s fi lm ends on sound, Liege producer Compuphonic’s dreamy end- pop charts were dominated by new beat tracks, with a sombre note, as a movement that had united an of-day anthem has clocked up over 4,000,000 YouTube bands like Confetti’s and Plaza created to provide a often divided country was cut off in its prime. The plays since its release, and its ubiquitous presence recognizable face to the music that could fi ll arenas music they made and that features in The Sound throughout the summer months has ensured its status with mainstream pop fans dancing to sanitized new Of Belgium would continue to infl uence producers as a modern day Ibiza classic. beat pop hits. Barely two years from its birth new for decades to come but whilst Belgian labels, DJs beat was dead and buried, but whilst the pop charts and producers may have been revered abroad, were full of watered-down imitations, many Belgian at home the party was over… for the time being at producers had already moved on. least. HARDER AND DARKER As the world at large began to tentatively embrace electronic music, Belgian producers like CJ Bolland shifted their focus to producing music that was harder, more aggressive, darker than anyone else had dared till then. “Sequenced music like EBM or techno or new beat, music programmed with computers, you cannot miss a beat, you can set your watch to it, it’s too perfect and for a lot of people it feels unnatural,” explains Devillé. “I remember watching a documentary on the television at the end of the '80s and they went to Holland and France, and this new house music coming in from the States, the people just didn't get it but in Belgium we had already been dancing to it for several years.” Belgian producers’ headstart and seeming affi nity for sequenced sounds were paying off. Belgian techno was here and the world couldn’t get enough. Packed full of orchestral stabs, breakbeats and hoover bass, the sounds coming out of studios in
RX[OU Q][ RX[OU Q][ %'
DJ526.belgian.indd 79 16/9/13 18:26:17 Surfi ng Leons
BELGIUM BLASTS BACK
Belgium may not be the hardcore techno powerhouse it once was but despite having a population just half that of Greater London and having seen many of its leading clubs closed, the country has continued to produce more than its fair share of electronic music superstars...
aving spent much of the '80s outstripped those at home. Over the past decade honest people.” and early '90s we’ve had the likes of electro rockers GOOSE and The Fonsny recognizes that things have changed since bestriding the Subs follow in the footsteps of the Dewaele’s band new beat’s heyday. “For me there’s not so much world of electronic Soulwax, bands equipped with a stadium-sized wall a ‘Belgian sound’ any more, but there’s defi nitely music like some of synthesised sound, whilst The Glimmers’ Eskimo a ‘Belgian scene’. We have all this history, from waffl e-scoffi ng Recordings label became synonymous with the rise the Boccaccio and Bonzai Records to Front-242 colossus, Belgium’s of nu-disco, introducing Aeroplane, amongst many and R&S. Growing up, it was all around us. But it's producers were others, to the world. great today, you've got these big acts like Stromae, left splintered and isolated by the authority’s Today The Glimmers’ brand of Balearic house 2ManyDJs, The Magician, GOOSE and Netsky, but clampdown on the nation’s clubs. With legendary and disco seems almost as Belgian as moules also lots of cool young guys coming through, incubatorsH of talent like the Boccaccio shuttered, et frites, with the likes of The Magician, ATTAR!, people like Locked Groove, Kolombo, Bad Dancer, the Belgian techno community lost its focus at Compuphonic, A.N.D.Y and Mickey all defying the the Pelican Fly label. We are all working together to the moment producers in neighbouring France, country’s notoriously wet weather to produce make things happen.” Germany and the UK began to assert themselves. balmy sun-dappled electronic music. But despite Still, with a seemingly natural affi nity for electronic their success there still hasn’t been a clear ‘Belgian VIBRANT LOCAL SCENES music, a love of partying all night and a penchant sound’, a defi ning national movement similar to With releases on labels like Glasgow’s Numbers for brewing phenomenally strong beer, it was new beat, and much like the country itself today’s and freshly signed to Claude VonStroke’s Dirtybird, unlikely that Belgium’s club culture would just roll Belgian electronic music scene is a patchwork Brussels duo GoldFFinch are another act making over and die. And if the country’s monolithic rave pieced together from contrasting styles and sounds, waves beyond the country’s borders. For them the culture was unable to sustain itself, a more eclectic some homegrown but just as many imported. lack of one defi ning sound has allowed them to be scene would soon spring up in its place. more open to outside infl uences and driven them In the late ‘90s two Belgian DJs, David Fourqaert Mathieu Fonsny, aka Surfi ng Leons, is one of the to make a success of their career beyond Belgium’s and Mo Becha, then known as The Glimmer Twins, new wave of DJs and producers with a distinctly borders. were organising their fi rst Eskimo parties, throwing global outlook. His music, taking in elements of hip- “Belgium has always been open to new music and everything from house and disco to ragga and hop, electro, house and techno, has been released movements of music,” Yoann and Gilles say. “Right rock’n’roll into the mix. Along with 2ManyDJs, on Buraka Som Sistema’s Enchufada label, his own now the heart of the electronic movement is based another Belgian DJ duo with an equally eclectic Forma.T parties in Liege have hosted everyone from in places such as London and Berlin but because nature, those parties and the label that emerged Erol Alkan to Hudson Mohawke, and he’s just about Brussels is on a crossing point between those cities, from them would come to revive the anything-goes to head off to the States to play for the Mad Decent artists here can easily pick up on new trends. With attitude that had been such a feature of clubs like stage at the Tomorrowworld festival. GoldFFinch we try to let these infl uences appear in the Ancienne Belgique in the mid '80s. Still, despite spending more time outside the our music without just copying any one particular country than in these days, Fonsny is still sure of his genre. Being in the centre of the electronic map BACK ON THE MAP identity. certainly affects our work everyday. The Glimmers and the Flying Dewaele Brothers “Oh, I'm a Belgian producer through and through,” “Anyway, times have changed,” they continue, put Belgium back on the map, and in the years he asserts. “I was raised on R&S and 2ManyDJs. “everything is global now, it’s as easy to work on since the country’s producers haven’t looked back, We're a small country and we're often the fi rst to a tune with someone from Canada as it is with literally in many cases as opportunities abroad have put ourselves down, but I think we are a cool and someone in Brussels and if your music is good, it’ll
& RX[OU Q][ RX[OU Q][
DJ526.belgian.indd 80 16/9/13 18:26:38 DANCE TUNNEL The mid '90s may have been a hard time for Belgian clubbers, but today the country enjoys a more liberal approach to partying and just two hours away from London by Eurostar, a night out in Belgium should be high on any clubbing tourist’s checklist. Many of the be noticed everywhere. There’s a lot of talent say, new beat, where there’s something clear country’s best parties, especially during the summer in Belgium, good clubs and awesome festivals, and defi nite like dubstep in the UK or minimal months, take place in impromptu spaces atop parking but Belgium can easily get too small, you techno in Germany, but I’m fi nally starting to garages or out in the parks and woods, but there are eventually have to look elsewhere for bigger see more and more people lose this very Belgian still several clubbing institutions well worth adding to opportunities.” inferiority complex and get their act together. your agenda. It might take some time, but we can already Julien Fournier — whose Vlek label has been see a lot more artists and bands reaching an LIBERTINE SUPERSPORT, championing the wayward and wonky sounds international audience. Brussels of techno and electronica producers such as “I like to think Belgian electronic music's future Hosting everyone from Erol Alkan to Kompakt's Squeaky Lobster, Cupp Cave and Sagat — agrees is bright,” he adds. “Anyway, we're one of the Michael Mayer, Libertine Supersport’s huge monthly that with no defi ning homegrown scene for very few countries in Europe where the beer is parties draw a devoted and eclectic crowd ranging Belgian producers, exporting their music is now as good as the party spirit, and that still counts from hipster kids to the occasional naturist. As as important as building a domestic fan-base. for a lot I reckon.” its name suggests, it’s a louche affair, the perfect “Look, Belgium is a very small country; from place to let down your hair and hear international Brussels if you drive any direction for two Ý;acc]ÛIgffqÛK`]Û>daee]jkÛJmjxÛf_ÛC]gfkÛ stars play alongside residents Mickey, A.N.D.Y and hours, you're out of the country,” Fournier >gd\==af[`ÛYf\Ûegj]ÛoaddÛYddÛZ]ÛYhh]Yjaf_Û Rick Shiver. libertinesupersport.be explains. “But the capital is not the only focal YlÛ9]d_ameÛ9ggekÛYlÛn]fm]kÛY[jgkkÛCgf\gfÛ point for electronic music, and even less so for Z]lo]]fÛl`]Ûl`ÛYf\Û~l`Ûg^ÛF[lgZ]jÛK`]Û FUSE, Brussels more experimental sounds. Liège, Antwerpen, Jgmf\ÛF^Û9]d_ame¿Û_]lkÛalkÛLBÛhj]ea]j]ÛgfÛ For nearly 20 years techno and house in Brussels Charleroi, Leuven, Gent... they all have vibrant =ja\YqÛ~~l`ÛF[lgZ]jÛYlÛ:Y^#Û~~ÛafÛ GoldFFinch RX[OU Q][ RX[OU Q][ & DJ526.belgian.indd 81 16/9/13 18:26:53